Hey! Serfs! Compare USA paid vacation, sick leave, & parental leave to other advanced nations.

[Karmadillo]

But we do have a kickass war machine & a Gulf full of oil, so it's not like we're losers or anything.

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/cepr-blog/no-vacation-nation/

CEPR's kicking off the summer vacation season with an appearance by CEPR Senior Economist John Schmitt on CBS Sunday Morning this weekend (click here for airtimes). He'll be talking about paid vacation and holidays in the United States -- or lack thereof.

In No Vacation Nation, CEPR finds that we're the only advanced nation that doesn't guarantee its workers and paid vacation or holidays. In fact, 1 in 4 U.S. workers do not receive any paid holidays or vacation -- see the grim picture below.



But it's not just vacation. CEPR research shows that the United States comes in last when when it comes to paid sick days and paid parental leave as well. And while some argue that paid leave leads to less competitive economies, CEPR also finds that paid sick days don't cause unemployment rates to rise.

<edit>

And Rep. Alan Grayson has proposed the first-ever paid vacation law in Congress. He asks:

Why are paid vacations good enough for the Chinese, French, Japanese and German employees, but not good enough for us?


more...

[seabeyond]

1. sheeeit, all i am asking for is a livable wage anymore. and a person able to find a job. nt

[rurallib]

really. Our sights are set so low anymore all we are asking is enough

to survive on.

[Karmadillo]

8. Please, sir, I want some less.

nt

[olegramps]

57. The American Workers cut their own throat.

They dumped the unions and now are paying the price because the have absolutely no representation in Congress. When they get as desperate as their grandparents they might wakeup and realized that they have screwed themselves. Cry me a river.

[Kingofalldems]

2. Unless you're a fat cat- paid holidays and vacation are pure communism

[Traveling_Home]

3. Hey did you know that in Greece ..... nt

[nichomachus]

7. I know that in Greece

It was the bankers, not the workers, who tanked the economy -- despite the propaganda to the contrary. The Greek "crisis" was engineered by Goldman Sucks.

[Uncle Joe]

10. Yes, in Greece

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=8416528

[Karmadillo]

14. Thanks for the great link.

nt

[Uncle Joe]

15. Thanks for the thread, Karmadillo.

:thumbsup:

[inna]

26. thanks for linking to that great post, i completely missed it the first time around

[Uncle Joe]

69. Anytime.

Peace to you, inna :hi:

[DFW]

4. Tell me about it. My daughter is probably leaving for Germany this fall

As a dual citizen, she can choose. She just graduated Law School, magna cum laude with all kinds of extra awards.

If she stayed in New York, she would be waiting on tables. Several German and British law firms are competing for
her. She will make her decision in the next couple of weeks. They offer many paid holidays, German comprehensive
health care and insurance, and a minimum of 24 days of paid leave that they insists their employees take to avoid
burn-out. She would have preferred to stay in New York, but this wasn't a difficult choice to make.

[Captain Hilts]

5. There's a reason there is no Northern European migration to North America. nt

[Auggie]

6. That's the price of a corporate-run government.

[namahage]

9. Thanks for the information. From your link:

So how can America get out of last place? The Healthy Families Act, which would provide paid sick days to millions of American workers, is being promoted by Sen. Christopher Dodd and Rep. Rosa DeLauro -- with the blessings of the Obama Administration. There are also state and local campaigns for paid sick days across the country.

I guess that 4 paragraph limit prevents you from putting that in, and it wasn't just an "oversight," right?

[Karmadillo]

12. You're right. DU rules

limit us to four paragraphs (although I'll push it for a long article--which this isn't). By the way, why hasn't the Healthy Families Act passed? Is the Obama administration making the same effort it made for bankster bailouts and wars of empire supplementals? Google results on the Healthy Families Act are pretty sparse. Maybe the administration is waiting until the Democrats control Congress and the White House? I dunno. Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide.

[leftstreet]

30. Healthy Bankster Act! Healthy Military Act!

Maybe the administration is waiting until the Democrats control Congress and the White House?

hehe

K&R

[Sherman A1]

46. +1, Agreed & Well Said!

:thumbsup:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. But..but..those nations don't have the most macho, supreme, military on the planet.

They waste all their money on their people!

[DissedByBush]

65. Hmmm, that's a good idea, let's pull out

Much of Europe really hasn't paid much for its own defense in decades. We did.

Maybe we should ask the Western EU countries for compensation for keeping them from becoming Soviet serf states.

After of course we pull all our bases out of their countries, crippling local economies across the EU.

This isn't sarcastic. There are tens of thousands of Germans alone employed solely by the fact we have bases there. This is direct employment, the "local nationals" employed by the military (and we give them all those good perks), and those Germans running or employed by businesses that cater to the Americans there. We have no such foreign money pouring into out employment.

I saw a very small base in Germany close once, a large number of businesses closed shop or had to shrink.

[flamingdem]

13. USA USA! GO TEAM! nt

[jp11]

16. YOU'RE A SOCIALIST, A SOCIALIST, *puts fingers in ear* lala lala lala

But seriously America falls behind in just about everything except getting rich people richer, making other countries and populations hate us and movies, I think we still makes lots of movies.

[MindandSoul]

36. Yes. . .movies!. . .It may be because we need those to escape our reality!

[intheflow]

17. You don't deserve vacation if you don't make enough money to afford one on your own.

Obviously, you're a slacker who doesn't work hard enough. So sayeth our corporate overlords.

[MindandSoul]

37. And. . .those "paid vacations" are actually "double paid" vacations in several

European countries at least!

You see, in France and Belgium at least (probably in Germany, Holland and Italy also, but I am not certain of that), when you get hired for a job, the annual salary you receive is actually divided in 14 months instead of 12 months. . .so your "monthly salary" is a little lower. . .but you built your budget around that AND when you decide to take your Summer or Winter vacation, you notify your employer 2 or 3 weeks ahead of time, and your last monthly check before you leave on vacation is DOUBLED!

This allows you to spend your "regular" monthly salary on your on-going monthly expenses (i.e., mortgage, insurance, car payment, utilities, etc. . .) but spend your "vacation pay" on your vacation. . .which is one of the main reason Europeans can afford to travel outside their home countries for their vacations instead of just staying at home or going camping to save money!

OR if you really don't want to leave home, if you prefer to stay at home and relax for 3 or 4 weeks. . .you can use your "vacation pay" for any other expenses you choose (whether it be a down payment on a new car, new furniture, an addition to your home, or just going to good restaurants every day).

[Greyhound]

18. Ironically, most of the nations kicking our ass are doing so because we

imposed versions of FDR's Second Bill of Rights on them, through their constitutions after we WWII. Of course, it was far too much to let us have back here, our job is to make millionaires into billionaires and you can't do that without a pliable and ignorant slave class.

We had a few people in power that actually wanted people to prosper and be free back then. They thought that's what they were fighting for.

[laughingliberal]

23. +10,000,000,000 eom

[OJones]

19. UGH

My ~gut tells me (and my Magic 8 Ball confirms) that this has a lot to do with how expertly the upper echelon has employed "divide and conquer" tactics here (the only thing they employ?).

I wonder what inter-group relations are like in the EU...?

[mwooldri]

20. In Soviet Amerika depends on the outfit you work for.

I started out the year with 304 hours of paid vacation time, including 40 hours I purchased.

That's 33 days based on an 8 hour day of paid vacation. Plus I bought another 5 days.

Effectively 5 weeks and 3 days vacation time. I also get sick time, accrued at 4 hours a month that is separate to vacation time.

I've been here 11 years... a new entrant to the door would get 184 hours of vacation time a year - three weeks and 2 days, and accrue sick time at the same rate.

This is a Fortune 100 company I work for, and a company that's part of the DJIA.

If you work for yourself you're asking "What is a vacation? What is a sick day?" - no one pays you if you work for yourself and are sick or want time off.

[alarimer]

67. Do yo actually get to use it?

Getting paid vacation is no good if your company (like many do) penalizes people for actually taking time off, by turning them down for promotion, say, or by forcing people to compete with one another to see who is the most "loyal" employee i.e the one who works 12 hours a day, six days a week, as opposed to someone who takes "vacation".

The REAL problem in this country is the Protestant work ethic that we are so (wrongly) proud of. The one that says "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps". The same work ethic that blames poor people for being poor because they must not be good enough to succeed. The one that encourages people to work all the time and that taking real vacations is for losers. People complain about working long hours but they are secretly proud of it, I believe, because it shows everyone how "hard" they work (even if they don't really).

[Hosnon]

21. Pax Americana is expensive.

I agree we can and should do more (by making the wealthy pay their fair share); but we pay the lion's share of what is needed to sustain a relatively peaceful and stable world economy.

[Beartracks]

22. paid leave = less competitive

"some argue that paid leave leads to less competitive economies"

Yeah, I've often wondered: where are the studies that back up that assertion? Do the people who make this assertion think American workers are, by nature, slackers?

Are there studies that demonstrate that job security, paid leave, and other benefits (not to mention a livable wage) would have a positive effect on workers' overall productivity?

----------------

[amborin]

24. decimated unions = fewer, and declining, benefits

[inna]

25. not news, but

nice

[unapatriciated]

51. yes not news to some of us.

I used to live and work in a ski resort in the California Sierra Nevada's, we had a lot of Europeans (a lot of from Germany) vacation there.
Summer was actually busier than the Ski Months. I had many discussions with various visitors on the lack of time off Americans received vs Europeans.


Thanks for the post Karmadillo.

[Lorien]

27. And selfservative teabaggers will squeal "but they don't make as much money as we do!"

Their uber rich generally don't, but their middle class often does better, and with "socialized medicine" EVERYONE has more of a safety net.

I haven't had a vacation in over ten years, and I'm fairly burned out. All work and no break isn't healthy for any of us.

[jp11]

28. Yeah, rich in america is half a dozen homes, a dozen cars over there it might just be a couple of

houses and half a dozen cars, those poor bastards. :cry:

[Kievan Rus]

29. Yet another one of my five dozen reasons why I want the hell out of this country

[liberation]

31. American work force has been treated like a cheap $2 whore for the better part of half a century

And there is also a reason why education has been decimated in our country: people are now too dumb to realize the whore is not supposed to provide the bed AND pay for the screw. And I don't think this is just a coincidence but the result of a methodical dismantlement of the middle class.

I wish people here would wake up, it is destroying our kids future, our environment, and turning ourselves against each other... while the people at the top laugh and get the best experience out of living in this beautiful land of ours... while we just fight among each other for the leftover scraps. Imagine the hell on earth, life must be for millions of American families trying to scrap by... even though we literally live in one of the most beautiful/amazing places on earth (to be fair, 99% of this planet is beautiful and amazing)

[The Gunslinger]

32. Ronald Reagan's legacy. nt

[n.michigan]

63. It is now the OBAMA Legacy- His coming Soc Sec "redo" will gut families already struggling.

[marions ghost]

33. Americans just put up and put up...

why?:-(

[Festivito]

34. "it's not like we're losers or anything" We just pay more and get less...

..that's all.

We pay over $7,000 per year for health care and get less while those other countries pay around $3,000 per year and they get full coverage for everything guaranteed.

We pay more for our retirements and get less transportability and less assurance.

We pay more for our internet service and get less consistency of services.

We pay more for disability insurances and get less coverage such as when we're working around the house.

But, it's not like we're losers or anything.

[fasttense]

49. In most developed countries, a cell phone costs about $10 a month.

But here in the US of A, we get to pay $50 a month. Now that's what I call monopoly capitalism.

Seems everything here in the US is out of control from the prices of common commodities to the benefits for labor, from the taxes on our slave wages to the minor taxes on dividends for give aways to the uber rich. This country is nothing more than a third world with a high price tag and a really big budget for war.

Just the way the uber rich like it.

[Festivito]

52. Heaven forbid that we call these excessive costs a,... gasp, a tax.

And each excessively priced service comes with the excuse that you get less good service for paying that extra money.

Taxes my brain and my wallet.

[MrMickeysMom]

35. The Annoying Peasant...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAaWvVFERVA

[DIKB]

38. People

SHOULD be pissed, and I don't know why they aren't.

[Blue_Tires]

39. i remember my time living in D.C. when i met quite a few foreign nationals

years ago, when they told me about their vacation time and healthcare, i thought it was some practical joke...

[Rex]

40. Look, capitalism loves nothing more then 13 cents per hour child labor!

The only reason we are not owned yet by corporations is a few vocal LEFTIES are allowed to make the TV circuits. I'm sure that will go away along with Net Neutrality and our right to exist outside of corporate regulation.

[garybeck]

41. Some questions about that chart....

Why are there 20 bars and 11 labels on the bottom?????

And why does it say US has zero paid holidays? I believe most full time workers get paid for the standard 5 holidays.

And is the chart showing the mandatory vacation time by law? or is it the average? or the mean?

I know our numbers are low but I'd like to know what I"m looking at on that chart and I find it a little disturbing that whoever created the chart leaves many questions.

[Catherina]

42. The report , for your reading pleasure

The report is here: http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/2007-05-no-vacation-nation.pdf

[Mudoria]

48. Get 3 weeks paid vacation and 9 holidays and 5 sick days,,,

I'm happy enough with that. I couldn't care less what the Euros get.

[Enthusiast]

50. I'm not sure this entirely accurate.

Correct me if I'm wrong but most U.S. companies provide paid holidays. Christmas, News Years, Easter, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and others. Now, maybe the point is that these are not mandatory in the U.S.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

58. But they're not REQUIRED to

If your employer doesn't want to give you any vacation days, he doesn't have to, and while Christmas, etc. are FEDERAL holidays, there's nothing to prevent your employer from making you work on those days.

[Enthusiast]

59. Thanks, Lydia.

I think we all know why U.S. workers are not treated with basic humanity in our(our?)nation. It is obviously because corporate influence is so much greater than that of the rest of the citizenry. Why American workers wouldn't even think to ask to be treated such a humane manner. It is beyond disgusting. Too bad half of America is too fucking stupid and doesn't have a clue about how the rest of the civilized world lives.

[Art_from_Ark]

53. I don't know where they get that "no paid holidays in Japan" data

If you're a full-time worker in Japan, you get a bunch of paid holidays, including the 14 or so national holidays, and a few days in August for O-bon and some more days around New Year's.
However, if you're self-employed or part-time, you don't get these paid holidays.

[JCMach1]

43. In the UAE, I have 3 months + Religious Days- I usually have to work over

As I am an Administrator. When I do, I get paid an additional 2.5months salary for 8 weeks work. Then, I still have a month off. Plus, my airfare for myself and my family is paid by my employer.

We also get paid a yearly bonus which amounts to a 13th month of normal salary in the Fall.

And people always want to know why we don't move back to the US!

[dballance]

44. 10 Days? Are you kidding? Lucky to get 7

In the USA you're lucky to get seven holidays. New Years, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving (2 days if you're lucky though I've worked places that that Friday was a work day), and Christmas. How the hell did the USA graph get to 10 days?

[pundaint]

45. We, the People, need to understand our commonality of interests. The Teabaggers are not being

served, the militias are not being served, the Liberals are not being served, but we see our fellow victims as part of the problem. Until the People are willing to accept that we are not exceptional special people, way cooler than those fools over there, we will continue to be ruled by corporations.

We're all People, and we need a people's party. Perhaps the Democrats my want to submit a bid, but they haven't shown much interest in representing the People with their governance lately, and the republicans never did.

[BlueMTexpat]

47. I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco in the 1960s.

I remember being struck at the time by the amount of paid vacation time that everyone got (OK, OK salaries were lower, but ...). Most of all, I was astonished that in this so-called "third world" country where Islam was the national religion, women (and yes, women were not only civil servants, but also worked in private companies even then - and not simply as menial workers), had two to four months of paid maternity leave. That was an absolute right. That system had largely carried over from the former French colonial days. It remains in force today. Yes, national health care existed there too ... and still does.
When I returned to the US in the early 70s, my experience was that woman teachers who became pregnant had to resign their positions at an early point in their pregnancies, with no guarantees that they would be rehired after their child was born. As for women even being in the private sector, other than at the bottom rungs, there were very few. It got me to wondering which nation was further "evolved" even then.
If anything, the US has "devolved" since in more ways than it has advanced insofar as health care and labor relations and conditions are concerned.
Your post is but one very sad example.

******
PS: this bar graph is not as clear as is the one in your response to one commenter who queries it. Japan seems to be omitted.
But thank you anyway for posting.

[SkyDaddy7]

54. HELP ME with some data?!?!?

I am trying to find a nice graph that shows how wages & profits rose together, at the same rate, for nearly 100 yrs until the 1980's...I want to show some of my Tea Bagger friends because they are so inFOXicated they think I am lying! A nice graph would be the best thing for these knuckle heads as reading is not one of their strong points!

I have found wages to productivity which is disgusting but I also want wages to profits so I can show them how much harder the American worker is working but not getting proper pay for doing so!

Thank-you!

[Violet_Crumble]

55. Makes me glad I'm not an American worker...

I'm Australian, and my annual leave and sick leave accrues over time, and I also got three months long service leave when I hit ten years and it keeps on growing at nine days a year. The seven paid holidays a year sounds a bit on the low side. I could have sworn we get more long weekends than that...

[depakid]

62. I think ACT gets Canberra day

Christmas and Boxing Day are good for an extra day- and Good Friday/Easter Monday is a 4 day weekend (Some Americans get a similar deal on Thanksgiving).

All in all, paid holidays are closer to 10-12.

[dbmk]

56. Additional days off in Denmark

It is becoming more and more common to get another weeks paid lave as part of the your contract her in Denmark.

But 5 weeks paid leave is mandatory. For both parties. You can get a limited amount of unused paid vacation transferred to the next year or paid out - but you are demanded to try your best to use it.

And we have more than 9 days paid vacation, depending on how Christmas and New Years falls in relation to weekends, seeing as we have Dec. 25th, 26th and Jan. 1 off.

[guitar man]

60. I'm fortunate

My company has a generous vacation/ leave policy compared to most. I've got 5 weeks vacation and 12 paid holidays a year and it only takes 5 years to get there. I know people that have been on their jobs twice that long and are lucky to get two weeks vacation.

[glinda]

61. Sad. This makes our Country look very bad.

[HughBeaumont]

68. LOTS of corporate practices make our country look very bad.

"Most Free Nation" on earth, my ass.



http://journals.democraticunderground.com/HughBeaumont/46

· Since 1979, hourly earnings for 80% of American workers have risen by just 1 percent (all stats factor inflation). The average wage was 17.71/hr in 2007, falling by 5 percent compared to 1979.

· If wages kept pace with productivity, the average full time worker would be earning 58,000/year. Instead, he/she earns 36,000/yr.

· 20% of families with children under 6 live below the poverty line.

· The typical American worker puts in 1804 hours a year. That's 135 hours more than the average British worker, 240 more than the French worker and 370 more hours than the German worker. That could be because we’re also the only industrialized nation that has no mandates regarding a minimum number of vacation days per year (unlike the Swedish and the French, who mandate 5 and 6 weeks, respectively). The good ol' Yew Ess Ay is also one of four countries (out of 173 nations surveyed) that do not provide paid maternity leave.

· Almost ¼ of the American workforce (33 million workers) earn less than 10 dollars an hour, which is less than poverty for a family of four.

· Just one third of laid off workers receive unemployment benefits, down from 50 percent a generation ago, and the federal program for UI and retraining has been de-funded by more than 10 billion dollars in the last quarter century.

· The typical CEO in 1976 earned (use that term loosely) 36 times what their average worker did. In 1993, it rose to 131 times more. Today, that disparity is now at 369 times more their average worker’s salary, down from 441 times more five years ago, but still lousy nonetheless.

· The American economy has lost one in five factory jobs since 2000.

· One out of six managerial employees worked more than 60 hours a week, according to a 2004 BLS survey. This statistic doesn’t include commute time.

· A Pew Charitable Trusts survey from 2004 found that men in their 30s had a median income of 12 percent less than their fathers did at the same age.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/HughBeaumont/106

On Sept. 12, 2001, there were no commercial flights in the United States. It was uncertain when airlines would be permitted to start flying again—or how many customers would be on them. Airlines faced not only the tragedy of 9/11 but the fact that economy was entering a recession. So almost immediately, all the U.S. airlines, save one, did what so many U.S. corporations are particularly skilled at doing: they began announcing tens of thousands of layoffs. Today the one airline that didn't cut staff, Southwest, still has never had an involuntary layoff in its almost 40-year history. It's now the largest domestic U.S. airline and has a market capitalization bigger than all its domestic competitors combined. As its former head of human resources once told me: "If people are your most important assets, why would you get rid of them?"

It's an attitude that's all too rare in executive suites these days. As the U.S. economy emerges from recession, Americans continue to suffer through the worst labor market in a generation. The unemployment rate dipped in January, from 10 percent to 9.7 percent, but the economy continued to lose jobs. There are currently 14.8 million unemployed, and when you count "discouraged workers" (who've given up on job seeking) and part-time workers who'd prefer a full-time gig, that's another 9.4 million Americans who are "underemployed." While the pink slips are slowing as the economy rebounds, the lack of jobs remains the most visible—and politically troublesome—reminder that despite what the economic indicators may tell us, for much of the population, the Great Recession hasn't really gone away.

Companies have always cut back on workers during economic downturns, but over the last two decades layoffs have become an increasingly common part of corporate life—in good times as well as bad. Companies now routinely cut workers even when profits are rising. Some troubled industries seem to be in perpetual downsizing mode; the U.S. auto industry, to take just one example, has been shedding employees consistently for decades. (NEWSWEEK is familiar with these pressures: its head count is down significantly in recent years.)

(snip)

For many managers, these actions feel unavoidable. But even if downsizing, right-sizing, or restructuring (choose your euphemism) is an accepted weapon in the modern management arsenal, it's often a big mistake. In fact, there is a growing body of academic research suggesting that firms incur big costs when they cut workers. Some of these costs are obvious, such as the direct costs of severance and outplacement, and some are intuitive, such as the toll on morale and productivity as anxiety ("Will I be next?") infects remaining workers.

But some of the drawbacks are surprising. Much of the conventional wisdom about downsizing—like the fact that it automatically drives a company's stock price higher, or increases profitability—turns out to be wrong. There's substantial research into the physical and health effects of downsizing on employees—research that reinforces the seemingly hyperbolic notion that layoffs are literally killing people. There is also empirical evidence showing that labor-market flexibility isn't necessarily so good for countries, either. A recent study of 20 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development economies over a 20-year period by two Dutch economists found that labor-productivity growth was higher in economies having more highly regulated industrial-relations systems—meaning they had more formal prohibitions against the letting go of workers.

[glinda]

72. we sure have been living in a big fat lie bubble

[Karmadillo]

64. Better chart here and a link to a more detailed report

http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/2007-05-no-vacation-nation.pdf

[TheFarseer]

66. With more and more temp workers,

that don't get vacation, this is no surprise.

[Vinca]

70. When you throw in the comparison of health care systems,

it makes you want to emigrate to one of those countries.

[Union Yes]

71. Dammit. This serf was too late to K&R.

Here's a kick!

great op!

:thumbsup: